Game Description:LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4 will give gamers the chance to experience the magic and adventure of Harry Potter in a new and uniquely LEGO way. Playing as Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, as well as other favorite characters, gamers will have the opportunity to attend lessons, cast spells, mix potions, fly on broomsticks and complete tasks to earn house points. Throughout the game, players will also have the freedom to explore iconic settings from the wizarding world including Hogwarts castle, Diagon Alley, the Forbidden Forest and the village of Hogsmeade!

LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4 Review

Building on the success of its previous LEGO-based games, Traveler's Tales returns with LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4, delivering one of the most joyously whimsical and top-to-bottom enchanting experiences of the year.

The Pros

Expertly captures enchantment of Harry Potter universe

LEGO assembling fits perfectly with wizarding abilities

Staggering amounts of content to unlock after lengthy story mode

The Cons

Managing spells awkward in later stages

Auto-lock can be fickle

Almost too many things to interact with

Building on the success of its previous LEGO-based games, Traveller's Tales returns with LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4, delivering one of the most joyously whimsical and top-to-bottom enchanting experiences of the year. Yeah. I said enchanting. What of it?

LEGO HP tells streamlined versions of the first four Potter books, and as in all the LEGO games, it features zero dialogue and instead relies entirely on sight gags and exaggerated physical performances. As such, you lose all of the nuanced character relationships and elaborate narrative structuring, but I doubt anyone who plays this game hasn’t at least seen all of the movies, so the minimalistic presentation shouldn’t cause much of an issue.

As in previous LEGO titles, most of your time is spent smashing endless amounts of LEGOs in order to collect rivets (aka currency to buy items cheats, characters, etc.) and then, when appropriate, reassembling the blocks into something useful or using a hidden object in the LEGO pile to solve puzzles. Similar to the Force in the LEGO Star Wars games, the ability to use Wingardium Leviosa at will to toss other students through the air, move platforms into place, and assemble apparatuses in mid-air fits perfectly with the Potter narrative, and really makes you feel like you have unholy wizard abilities.

The Dangers of Misspelling

The levitation mechanic also shows off the game’s solid physics engine, which are used to great effect. Admittedly, targeting which object you want to manipulate can sometimes be annoying since there are so many things you can interact with, and it’s easy to auto-lock onto the wrong item. It doesn’t happen that often, but if you’re particularly impatient, it could get to you after a while.

The same could be said for the spell casting. Since there are so many spells, it's frustrating when the game forces you to cycle through them to find the one you want, especially during the boss fights when you have to cycle between up to three spells while dodging, attacking and figuring out how to take down the boss. But most of the time it works well enough, and the wide variety adds great depth to the overall game structure as each new spell you learn lets you access new areas that were previously closed off to you.

Break Out the Marauder’s Map

One of the most appealing aspects of the game is simply being able to roam the grounds of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, as well as other iconic locales such as the Leaky Cauldron and Diagon Alley, and exploring the vast numbers of nooks and crannies therein, in between the story missions. listening to John Williams’ incredible film score, and interacting with the world is one of the game’s great successes.

However, the story missions are the real meat of the game, and they feature some grand sequences and set pieces that are impressively thrilling. And thanks to the inclusion of Nearly Headless Nick as a ghostly guide, you’ll always know exactly where your next story mission is. The story itself is quite lengthy, clocking in at around 10 hours with some moderate exploration and time spent playing a few of the secret stages.

At the end of my play through, I had only unlocked 38.1 percent of the game, and I had only scratched the surface of customizing characters, unlocking spells and cheats, or the secret challenge stages that let you build your own LEGO creations. In short, expect a lot of Potter-based bang for your buck…beak. I apologize.

Dual Wanding

While it’s unfortunate that the game doesn’t include three-player co-op (seems rather natural given the story features three main characters), the jump in/jump out multiplayer works just as well as it did in previous LEGO titles. The rotating, character-tracking split screen camera system -- first seen in LEGO Indiana Jones 2 -- returns, and once again keeps the presentation fluid and controlled. One of the major benefits to playing with a friend is that it alleviates a lot of the frustration that comes from having to manage all of your spells yourself.

Expecto Somefunum!...Again, I Apologize

Few properties fit as well with the LEGO games formula as Harry Potter does. And while you lose a fair bit of the narrative nuance of the novels, what you get in its place is a wonderfully fanciful adventure game that is overflowing with Potter love. Fans will definitely get the most out of it, but if you’re in the mood for a charming, sweeping romp, LEGO Harry Potter won’t disappoint.

Comments are Closed

Just started playing the game today with my 5 year old son. We love all of the Wii Lego games. I'm a little lost with the characters since I've never seen a Harry Potter movies but it is just as fun as the other Lego games. It's actually inspired me to watch the series. My only complaint is that there is no auto save. We had just completed Year 1 and as we started the 1st level of Year 2 the game froze up. I had to power down and of course when I started the game again I had load a new game. Are Lego games notorious for freezes or what? A free play level in Lego Batman used to freeze up on us all the time. Found a post that told us to play the story again and it worked.

You had a problem using spells in boss fights? If you hold the X button to target it auto uses the right spell on what every you aim at. Most of the bosses don't have you switching spells on the fly. So if you figure out what spell you need and apply it to be and use the x button to deflect or push back baddies work well.

It might ruin the franchise for me, but the epic battles with thousands of Lego ppl battling on screen would be epic! And the comedy they could make out of the group would be hilarious! Maybe I'm just weird......

i love the idea of this game and i love all the other lego based games as well i have them all and i would love to own this one but what i don't love is that sony has decided ont to put this game on playstation 2 fomat and that vexes me so all the others are on playstation 2 and i really don't see why they don't release this one on that fomat as well yes i know times are changeing and we should as well but i love my PS2 and i would really love for this game to be part or my lego collection on that format I REALLY HOPE SONY WILL CHANGE IT'S MIND AND RECONSIDER AND RELEASE THIS GAME ON A STILL VERY ACTIVE SYSTEM YOU MAY THINK IT IS A DINOSAUR BUT TO ME IT IS STILL VERY MUCH ALIVE Please Reconsider Thank You

I bet you anything that the next Lego game will be Twilight (besides the release of years 5-7 harry potter game).. I swear there is sooo much material for the puns and parodys that the Lego games provide. I would buy it just to see them make fun of the series lol.

Picked up collectors edition this morning for 360. Graphics are best i have seen from a Lego game. The environment is amazing. Hogwarts castle is by far the best location in a lego game to date where you spend your time between missions. What seems at this stage to have endless possibilities for exploration. I finished the first level and then spent nearly 3 hours exploring hogwarts before i started another mission. And this is without having special abilities or characters to reach certain areas which are locked for now. IMO its one of the best LEGO titles if not the best. It is very close to star wars and i am enjoying it emmensley. 5/5 in my book. If you ever played a LEGO game and enjoyed it or are a fan of the Harry Potter books/movies this is an absolute must own.

Great review, I was on the fence about this game because I enjoy the Harry Potter series but Ive never been a big lego game fan because I like voice acting in my games but after seeing game play this game seems like a must for $50. It'll definitely hold me till Crackdown 2 :)

Hi, my whole family has loved all of the Lego games over the years, we have them all, many for several platforms. Right now we're having difficulty deciding whether to get Lego Harry Potter for Wii or PS3. We have both consoles now and want to get the version that will give us the best experience. For Lego Indy 2 we got it on PS3 for the first time, and while the graphics were a bit better, it really seemed like it wasn't as much fun as previous games we had on the Wii, really down to the controls I think.

My question is: Are there any differences in LHP between Wii and PS3 besides graphics and controls? That would help me decide which to get.. Thanks!

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